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The Lake Mills baseball team had a rough stretch of games in the final week of the regular season.

Before their first game of the week, the Bulldogs were sitting with an 8-2 record. However, a slate of games Monday through Thursday brought them down to 8-6 with four straight losses.

Monday night, the Bulldogs traveled to Osage to take on the Green Devils and gave up two runs in the first inning and never came back, eventually losing 5-3.

Senior Mason Fritz was the starting pitcher in the game and went 5.1 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits while striking out six batters.

Tuesday night the Bulldogs hosted the Saints of St. Ansgar and encountered their worst loss of the season.

Tied 3-3 heading into the sixth inning, the Saints scored a whopping 16 runs in the top half of the inning, ending the game early after the Bulldogs failed to score in the bottom half.

In its second home game of the week, Lake Mills hosted New Hampton with a chance to get back on the winning path. However, the offense was nonexistent for Lake Mills, as it mustered up only three hits. The Bulldogs were shut out 8-0 in the loss.

In the last attempt to right the ship before the start of the postseason, Lake Mills hit the road to take on Estherville Lincoln Central Thursday night. Again, Lake Mills struggled at the plate and were shut out for the second game in a row, falling 9-0.

The Bulldogs fall to 8-6 on the season and will play Central Springs in the first round of the 1A substate tournament Saturday afternoon at Newman Catholic High School. The teams have met one time already this season, with the Bulldogs coming out on top of a 6-0 shutout.